The sun was rising from the horizon as it colored the dark world with the brightness of life. Light moved across every inch of the fields and the war-ridden hills of Domu Village. Only the shadows of yesterday were left untouched by the purgatory brightness of the sun. The finches were out and about as the morning cock cried out proudly to make sure the world knew it existed and had done its job. Doing it once was not enough however as the domestic bird repeated its loud, echoing caw-caws over and over. This was the cock's daily ritual that it continued to do without fail like a machine. It woke up and made its call every morning. Once it completed its natural duties, it returned to its nest after a job well done to ease itself and enjoy its life.

Similarly, Arturo Pendragon had his own natural duties each early morning. No matter how hard the duty, it must be done. Normally, he would have liked to enjoy the sensation of the mattress while bathing in the morning rays, but there was no room for such luxury in this campaign against the Durgham Kingdom. Instead, Arturo spends time walking about while checking in on his men and making sure each of them had gotten up on time. Although the punishment for not attending role call in the morning were fairly strict, Arturo typically forgave his men quite easily for making a very human mistake. He would also graciously reward those who sacrificed hours of their sleep to guard the army's camp. Some of his superiors and other nobles back in would scoff at this "softness" of Arturo's, but there were some who admired and emulated it. He was strong, intelligent, valiant, decisive, and compassionate- everything needed in a leader. Of course, Arturo was also a human who would certainly have at least one disgraceful moment in
his life.

"Tiro Seint! I, General Pendragon of the 7th Imperial Army, am entering!" Arturo politely declared as he entered the abode Tiro was resting in. However, his timing seemed to have been quite horrific as he disturbed the sacred atmosphere of the love nest.

"Can you NOT enter right now? We're kind of busy here." Tiro said while calmly doing his natural duties.

"Ehh? Sorry, but the only man I want to see right now is Tiro~ <3" Reina moaned blissfully.

"S-s-sorry! I shalt return when thou hast completed thy ritual of life!"

Arturo shut the door immediately and pressed his back against it. He slid down to the floor slowly as he clutched his head while attempting to erase the previous images from his head. Frantically, he muttered to himself:

"MayGodbewithyoumayGodbewithyouGodlovesusallsoweshouldloveallAmen."

Just as he thought he calmed down, he heard the ecstatic moaning of the erotic pair in the bedroom and began to bang his head on the floor until a pool of blood spewed out.

Much later, Tiro walked out the door after spending much his time with Reina- only to see that the dining room had a zombie preaching "God has granted us love Amen."

It will be one of the greatest shames of Arturo's life that he will never speak of until the day he dies in peace. Poor Arturo Pendragon was quite the innocent child who never understood what sex was until that moment. Since then, Arturo would be slowly educated in the ways of love and life, but that's a story for another time. It wasn't until around noon when Arturo managed to recover from his initial enlightenment.

"And so? What do you need from me?" asked Tiro. Currently, Tiro and Reina were inside the Pendragon camps in order to have an important meeting with Arturo. There were guards inside and outside of the tent who seemed to give Tiro murderous glances every other second which made him fairly uncomfortable.

"As promised, our army will not trespass onto Domu Village without permission and enter a peaceful commerce in order to restock our supplies," started Arturo. "However, I am only willing to do so for one reason only."

Reina leaned forwards and inquired. "What is that reason?"

Arturo lifted his arm and pointed at the man who nearly slit his throat at the expense of his own life just hours ago. "I want Tiro to join me."

"What?!" Reina stood up while slamming the table.

"Yeah, I agreed to that." Tiro slumped on his chair lazily.

"So, I want you to sign this magic contract and help me conquer the Durgham Kingdom." Arturo slid forward a singular piece of parchment with some text on it. "This will bind your loyalties to the Pendragon army until the Empire takes over Durgham."

Tiro picked up the piece of paper and glanced over the contents. Little bits of intricate ink were beautifully laced on the smooth piece of parchment. After a while, he put the paper down.

"Slight problem..." Tiro began to scratch his head.

"Are the terms and conditions unsatisfactory?" Arturo asked.

"Well... I can't read."

"". . . What?"" Both Arturo and Reina were dumbfounded by this revelation. Arturo's head hit the table and Reina sighed with an exasperated expression.

"Come on Tiro, you're like seventeen and a traveler. How come you don't know how to read?" Reina jested.

Tiro scratched his head. "Well... I'm not exactly from around here."

"Really? You speak the human language so well though," Reina said.

"Were you raised in a human settlement in some other continent?" Arturo asked.

Tiro wasn't sure how to explain himself. He was a foreign alien to this world, yet he was summoned here by a king to be a "Hero" of the Durgham Kingdom. Deciding that this wasn't something to be mentioned for now, Tiro shrugged off Arturo's question.

"Did you think that I came from another world or something?" Tiro asked sarcastically.

"Who knows? With that body of yours, you could be from the heavens for all I know." Arturo began to analyze Tiro's body from his chest up. Though he did get a chance to see Tiro's naked body earlier in the day, he didn't get a really good glimpse, so now he was properly looking at the toned muscles outlined by the profile of Tiro's clothing.

Suddenly, Reina stood up and began to stand in front of Tiro with her arms spread out as if she was protecting him.

"Tiro's body is mine and mine alone! Get your own man!" she exclaimed.

"Ehhh?! I wasn't looking at him like that!" Arturo said while blushing in embarrassment.

Tiro held his chest with his arms and turned away stiffly while saying, "Pendragon you pervert" with a deadpan expression.

"Like I said! Ughhh you two..."

The mighty general of the Pendragon army slumped in his chair in defeat as he gave an exasperated sigh.

In the end, Arturo had one of his subordinates read the conditions of the contract one by one before Tiro signed it. Of course, Tiro had no choice but to sign it as promised. However, he felt much more secure knowing what he can and can't do under the magic contract. The contract could be summarized as the following organized in the manner of priority:

1. Tiro Seint is to follow Arturo Pendragon's orders to the letter .

2. Independent action is permitted as long as it is within the best interests of the Imperial Empire.

3. Tiro Seint may not harm anyone loyal to Arturo Pendragon.

4. Tiro is to be deemed a temporary servant of Arturo Pendragon bounded by this [Servant Contract]. Violation of the Arturo Pendragon's commands will lead to a direct physical and mental consequences through the magic of [Contract].

5. The contract will last until the Imperial Empire has conquered Dimwist Kingdom or has stopped warring against the Kingdom.

"Finally! We got it over with already," exclaimed Arturo. "It certainly would have helped if you two didn't joke around so much."

"Joking around? I was merely expressing my concerns as a 'temporary servant' because I might as well be your slave at that point Master Pendragon," Tiro replied sarcastically.

"What type of barbarian do you think I am?" Arturo asked.

"The type of twisted monster that loves to bend others to their will by intricately changing the very meaning of the words of others in order to get what they want."

"That's disgraceful! What type of monster would do that?!"

"A politician."

"A what? Enough with the small talk. We'll continue this later... For now, I want you to gather the weapons from the armory and do some maintenance on the equipment. Surely you can do that much right?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"Call me Arturo... It's weird that a man who could have killed me last night is calling me 'Lord' now."

Tiro walked out of the tent with Reina tailing him from behind. Arturo sighed as he rested his head in his arms on the table. His nearby attendant patted him on the back in sympathy before returning to his stiff posture in the corner of a tent while holding a spear upright on the ground.

"Hey... Jim right? Do you think the men in our army will pick a fight with that man?" Arturo questioned his underling. The soldier did not speak and merely stood in silence at his rightful place. Arturo sighed before saying, "I permit you to speak."

"With all due respect Pendragon-dono, and I do mean no disrespect sir yet I do mean to respect you as my position may be in danger sir, I would like to state my humble opinion and be perfectly honest about what I think without offending you- even if you have a different point of view. However, I would like to present a different point of view that may or may not differ from yours, so I wish to look into this matter of opinion without being condemning of the views that you may have Pendragon-dono. Thus, please realize that-"

Arturo stood up. "What are you? A politician? I don't know what a politician is, but I'm fairly certain Tiro Seint would have to agree with my usage of the name here. Cut to the chase already Joe."

"Of course someone is going to pick a fight with him."

"See? Was it that hard to just spit it out?"

"Spitting out whatever I want will eventually lead to demotion or even losing my head in this world Pendragon-dono."

"Well, I'm not going to chop off your head even though you are seriously irking me right now. Why am I always surrounded by difficult personalities?" Arturo lamented.